Two Ways of Seeing Magic

When I had mastered the art of deception and illusion and had come to know every sleight of hand and angle, I learned every trick ever known. But I had lost something, too. I had lost the imagination and curiosity I once had when I was young and witless. All the interest, the speculation, the imagination, the questioning, had gone out of the great art of magic! I still remember the time when I would be in utter shock when a magician would show me magic. The magician used his magic to withdraw my card out of thin air; a quarter goes through a soda can; the card I had carefully chosen slowly levitates from the deck; my quarter gets bite in half by a man with teeth of steel; numerous red sponge balls erect from only one; quarters come out of my ears; and playing cards shoot up in the air reflecting light off its red and black numbers and suites. I stare in amazement and become another believer of magic.

I stand in disbelief. Now knowing that magic is truly real. Only to think about how I would tell all my friends that I had just witnessed it first hand. But a day came when I began to stop thinking that it was special; another day came when I stopped imagining how magic was admirable and unique. Then I realized that when I was young I had been exaggerating about the magic that I had seen, and as I look back I think about how magic is really made up of deception and illusions: "The card that had been plucked from the air had really been behind his hand using the art of sleight of hand; the quarter